Transferred - Aliens Officer
I am researching the attached cover from December 1914 and would like to know some more about the red cachet which ties the censor cachet ":Letters Transferred to the Post Office by the Aliens Officer". the cover was posted with no postage paid, then charged due when forwarded, I assume after censorship in camp. Cancelled HYTHE and to Folkstone, I assume an Aliens camp in Kent.
Does anyone have a record of this cachet?
Thank you
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I can update this now and should thank Graham Mark for his help and pointing me towards the Farquharson 1920 Report on Postal Censorship during the Great War (1914 - 1919), as I have a copy, maybe I should have looked there in the first place:
When passengers arrived at a British port they were obliged to declare if they were carrying mail or other messages. It was an offence not to do so and they were advised of this on arrival.
The instructions were that where the quantity of mail was small the Aliens Officer was allowed to examine the mail, when the arrivals were processed on landing in Britain. But from a cross-channel boat carrying a few hundred Belgians the quantity could well be great. The instruction in this case was to pass the mail in bulk to the censors in London, if the volume was too great to deal with locally. From the censors they would then be handed to the Post Office for delivery.
I also now undersand that that the cachet was applied using a Hectograph handstamp, I have never heard of this, but the process is well explained on YouTube if you are interested.
Technically, this should have been charged the 2.1/2 overseas mail rate, plus 2.1/2d surcharge for non-payment (5d) total, no formal concession was allowed, but seems to have been granted.